Bridge supporters crowd meeting

WASILLA — If there were opponents of the Knik Arm Bridge in attendance at the Greater Wasilla Chamber of Commerce forum Tuesday, they were a quiet bunch.

And none of them were on the dais. Who was there?

• Rep. Mark Neuman (R-Big Lake), a major bridge supporter who also sits on the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority board.

• Michael Foster, chairman of KABATA.

• Verne Rupright, another bridge supporter and mayor of Wasilla.

• John Moosey, Mat-Su Borough Manager.

• Dan Sullivan, conservative mayor of Anchorage.

• Chuck Spinelli, a big name in home building and ardent bridge supporter.

• Scott Hicks with Alaska West Express, secretary/treasurer of the Alaska Trucking Association.

Some of their motivations might be readily apparent, but what was Spinelli doing there?

“Anchorage is landlocked at this point,” he said, noting that there are maybe three subdivisions not on the Hillside, all 100-lots each.

“A lot of people who move to Alaska are not looking to buy a condo,” he said.

So that means Anchorage needs to find new ways to expand. The bridge would do that.

And what does Sullivan think about that?

“There are some folks in Anchorage who do not want the bridge and part of the reason, I think, is the fear there will be a bleed of property tax,” Sullivan said.

But that argument ignores one thing — the Valley is booming and a lot of Valley residents work in Anchorage.

“It’s already happening,” Sullivan said.

And what about Hicks, what’s his motivation?

Hicks said truckers are eyeing the bridge as a way to save time and money. He said it would turn a 90-mile drive into a 2-mile drive. Multiplied over tens of thousands of trips from the Port of Anchorage north, that’s huge.

“Even 20 miles means 2 million miles,” when you’re talking about 100,000 trips, Hicks said.

Rupright said he teamed up with then-Houston-mayor Roger Purcell to stop an Anchorage planning group from pulling the bridge from its plans. He said that when he and Purcell did that they had Sullivan’s pending installment as mayor in mind.

“I don’t see where Wasilla will be diminished at all,” Rupright said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.